This invention relates to decks of playing cards and devices on which they can be played.
For many years, decks of playing cards have been used in the play of various card games. Specialized decks have been developed for numerous games, such as the children's deck commonly used for the play of "Old Maid."
New decks are occasionally developed for the play of particular games. For example, specialized rectangular decks are shown in U.S. Design Patent No. 260,156 to Persons, and 155,268 to Brzeski. A round deck is shown in U.S. Design Patent No. 81,336 to Joseph, and a one hundred four card deck in U.S. Design Patent 90,427 to Steidley.
A "standard deck" of cards today consists of a group of generally identically-sized rectangular cards. The back of each card usually contains a decorative design selected by the manufacturer which is usually identical for each card in the deck. The front or face of each card contains a design used for the play of the card game. As used hereafter the terms "standard deck" and "front" of a card will have the meaning set forth in this paragraph.
The most common card deck used today for the play of many card games contains fifty-two or more rectangular cards. There are thirteen in each of four suits--spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs--and many decks contain jokers as well. The thirteen cards of each suit include ten numeric cards (Ace and two through ten) and three face cards (jack, queen and king).
The front or face of the cards of this currently-used common deck usually have what is by now a relatively standardized design for each card. The design is aligned to be read when the card has its longer axis vertical with respect to the reader; in the case of numeric cards, the face of the card contains the number of the card (or an "A" if the card is an ace) facing up in the upper left and down in the lower right corner together with a pip showing its suit. The card also contains a central design displaying the number of pips of the suit corresponding to the number represented by the card. The pips are displayed in a standard design for all suits and all cards in the spades and diamonds suits are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, illustrating the particular alignment of the pips on the face of the cards of today's commonly-used deck.
If the card is a face card, it contains a J, Q, or K in the upper left facing up and in the lower right facing down together with a pip showing the suit, and a central design which is a representation of a Jack, Queen or King.
It should be noted from FIGS. 1 and 2 that the Ace, three, and five through nine of spades (as well as clubs and hearts) are asymmetrical about a horizontal axis dividing the card into two equal halves. In the case of the diamond suit, only the seven is asymmetrical.
Unfortunately, the above standard deck of cards allows cheating by improper signalling between partners, i.e. signalling based on the position or manner in which a given card is played. In contract bridge, in particular, signalling can legally and ethically be accomplished by the rank of the card played, but not by the manner and position in which the card is played. For example, if one bridge player plays an ace, his partner can legally signal by playing a high card in the same suit, which encourages the play of the same suit. A low card would instead (by legal signalling) discourage continued play of the same suit.
The play of assymmetric cards, however, in prearranged placement with respect to the partner to "override" the rank of the card, is not legal. For example, playing a high card facing in one direction to encourage playment of the same suit and in another direction to discourage it, is not legal, and in fact is a matter of concern in tournament bridge today, where tournament rankings are at stake. In fact, the rules of competitive bridge have been drawn so as to specifically preclude such improper signalling. For example, Law 73, Section A of the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge (American Edition) promulgated by the American Contract Bridge League provides that "communication between partners should be effected only by means of the calls and plays themselves." Further, "calls and plays should be made without special emphasis." Law 73, Section B2 provides "The gravest possible offense against propriety is for a partnership to exchange information through prearranged methods of communication other than those sanctioned by these Laws. The penalty imposed for infraction is normally expulsion from the sponsoring organization."
Obviously, the above-mentioned deck of standard cards allows such signalling to occur, or the need for such a rule would be eliminated. Among other things, the asymmetry of the cards mentioned allows cheating; for example, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the five of spades can be placed in either of two different alignments in order to give a signal to one's partner across the table. For more sophisticated signalling, even symmetrical cards can be angled to the left or the right as shown in FIGS. 3C and 3D.
Needless to say, it would be desireable to eliminate such cheating directly, by the design of the cards themselves or the play table, to preclude the problems of cheating that do occur, notwithstanding attempts to prevent it.